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Kelowna paramedic attacked by knife-wielding woman at downtown station – Kelowna News

Kelowna paramedic attacked by knife-wielding woman at downtown station – Kelowna News

BC’s paramedic union is calling for changes after one of its members was attacked by a knife-wielding woman in Kelowna on Tuesday.

At 3 a.m. on December 10, a paramedic was washing an ambulance in the Lawrence Avenue bay with the doors open when he came across a woman crouched in the back of the ambulance armed with a four-inch hunting knife.

“They have to open the bay door there to get around the ambulance with the hose,” says Ian Tait, director of communications for the BC Paramedic Ambulance, which represents about 4,500 BC paramedics.

Tait says the woman was screaming at the paramedic, “something to do with the paramedics killed her family.”

Tait says the woman with the knife lunged at the paramedic, who used the ambulance sweeper to restrain her.

“She kept trying to get through. She was manic, screaming, screaming. Then he put (the broom) up to her neck to push her, and the foam was in her face, and she was screaming, screaming, and then finally she got mad and walked out into the street,” Tait explained.

Kelowna RCMP were called and responded to the scene. A police spokesman says an investigation is ongoing.

Tait says since the knife incident, BC Emergency Health Services, which oversees
BC Provincial Ambulance Service has added private security to the location.

Tait says he’s not good enough.

“We want more safeguards, especially in Kelowna, not just provincially, and it’s been one excuse after another.”

Tait says the union has been asking for a new location for its Kelowna building and improved security for its members, but so far, their requests have fallen on deaf ears.

“Enough is enough. This is a clear escalation that we’ve been telling them about for years. We have it all very well documented,” Tait said.

Leanne Heppell, BCEHS executive vice president and chief ambulance officer, tells Castanet they are taking the situation very seriously.

“We have about 183 stations in the province and we look at each of our stations and do station quality and station safety assessments,” Heppell said.

“Kelowna would be one of the stations we are looking at. It’s one of our stations that’s in a pretty busy inner-city urban area, and so sometimes inner-city stations definitely have more issues to deal with. “

Heppell says she is proud of her staff who continue to show up for work despite what she described as “a very scary incident”.

“We have zero tolerance for this. Staff should be able to come to work and feel safe. We work hand in hand with our union partners on issues like this as well,” says Heppell.

No specific additional security measures were outlined, other than the addition of private security patrols.

“We take this very seriously, especially this incident. As soon as we became aware of it. We have security officers patrolling the area around the station and then monitoring the car park and making sure staff feel comfortable walking to and from their car in shift. change,” Heppell said.